Is this the best landscape photography in the world?

The Sony World Photography Awards 2020 recently announced their overall winners, of the Professional, Open, Student and Youth competitions and there is some fantastic landscape photography to be seen – especially within the specific landscape photography category. 

Ronny Behnert won the Sony World Photography Awards 2020 landscape photography category with his beautifully captured depictions of torii shrines in Japan. However, Behnert faced stiff competition from his fellow shortlisted photographers.

• Read more: Best camera gear for landscapes

• Landscape photography tips and techniques
• Best cameras for landscapes
• Best lenses for landscapes

Video: Ronny Behnert talks about his winning landscape

Florian Ruiz took second place for his powerful landscape photography of Lop Nor, a former salt lake in Xinjiang province in northwest China that is now largely dried-up. He said, "this barren area was used intermittently as a nuclear weapons testing site from 1964 to 1996, with as many as 45 tests carried out underground and in the atmosphere… I wanted to show the invisible danger in this desolate area…

"Using digital techniques, I superimposed image fragments, suggesting atoms altering and a general feeling of impermanence. These broken perspectives show the landscape twisting and changing, leading to a sort of vertigo or malaise. The work hints at the danger hidden behind the landscapes."

Chang Kyun came third in the landscape photography category with his series 'New Home'. This series focused on the Japanese internment camps that were build in the US during the Second World War. "These camps imprisoned 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry – more than 60% of them were US citizens. Working on the project reminded me of the racial antagonism we have witnessed in recent history, and led me to consider how radically our view can alter when war and terror affect our lives."

View some of the incredible landscape photography from this year's Sony World Photography competition below and check out their virtual exhibition here to see more images from different genres of the competition.

Commended landscape entries

Read more

Best professional camera in 2020: which pro camera system is best?
The best Sony Camera in 2020
The best lenses for landscapes